#WingedWordsWindsday: 2022/06/15 -- Celebrating Juneteenth!

 WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY

Compiled by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)

Vol. 1, No. 33: June 15, 2022

 

Juneteenth National Independence Day Is Sunday, June 19, 2022

 

“Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman:

Leaders and Liberators”

By Rob Chappell, M.A.

Adapted & Condensed from Cursus Honorum IX: 8 (March 2009)

 

                In honor of Juneteenth, the Editor would like to share the stories of two women who were prominent leaders in the American abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements during the 19th century. These courageous leaders have inspired countless women after them to work for liberty, justice, and equality for all people. The two African-American heroes highlighted in this article are Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) and Harriet Tubman (1820-1913).

                Sojourner Truth (originally named Isabella Baumfree) was born as an enslaved person in upstate New York, at a time when slavery had not yet been abolished throughout the North. She obtained her freedom in 1826 and worked at various jobs until she found her lifelong vocation in 1843: campaigning for human rights. On June 1 of that year, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth and began traveling and speaking throughout the northeastern states. During the 1840s and 1850s, she enthralled hundreds of audiences with her spirited addresses advocating the abolition of slavery and women’s suffrage, while her autobiography (Narrative of Sojourner Truth, a Northern Slave), published in 1850, continued to galvanize the abolitionist movement.

                Truth’s most famous address, Ain’t I a Woman, was delivered before the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron during 1851. She worked for the Union Army and the Freedmen’s Bureau in Washington, DC during the Civil War and continued her speaking tours on behalf of women’s suffrage until her eventual retirement in Battle Creek, Michigan.

                Harriet Tubman (originally named Araminta Ross) was born as an enslaved person on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. After escaping to freedom in Pennsylvania at the age of 29, she returned to Maryland several times to liberate other slaves. Tubman became a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, clandestinely leading enslaved people from the South to freedom in the northern United States or in British Canada, where slavery had been abolished since 1833. She conveyed secret messages to her “passengers” on the Underground Railroad through songs like “Follow the Drinking Gourd.” This ingenious piece of music taught its listeners how to use the Big Dipper to find the North Star, which would guide their nocturnal journeys to freedom in the North:

 

When the Sun comes back,

And the first quail calls,

Follow the Drinking Gourd.

For the old man is a-waiting

For to carry you to freedom.

If you follow the Drinking Gourd.

 

                During the Civil War, Tubman served in the Union Army as a scout and guide, and in June 1863, she became the first woman in American history to lead a combat operation, in which hundreds of enslaved people were liberated in South Carolina. After the Civil War, she worked tirelessly for women’s suffrage and full equality for African-Americans. She made her home in Auburn, New York, the center of her humanitarian work for the last 44 years of her life.

                The legacy of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman continues today as courageous women of the 21st century work, as Sojourner Truth said, “to set [the world] right side up again.” Through writing, speaking, researching, and volunteering, the successors of these two liberating leaders are helping all of us to build a brighter future for all people.

 

Webliography

·         http://www.sojournertruth.org/Default.htm (Sojourner Truth Institute)

·         http://www.harriettubman.com/index.html (Harriet Tubman Infohub)

·         http://www.freedomcenter.org/ (National Underground Railroad Freedom Center)

·         http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/special/mlk/gourd2.html (Text of “Follow the Drinking Gourd” with Commentary from NASA)

·         http://nationaljuneteenth.com/ (National Juneteenth Observance Foundation)

 

Transcript of the Emancipation Proclamation

By President Abraham Lincoln

January 1, 1863

                Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

                "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

                "That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."

                Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

                Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomack, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

                And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

                And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

                And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

                And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

                In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

                Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

 

Lift Every Voice and Sing (1900)

By James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)

Editor’s Note: This poem, which has come to be known as the African-American national anthem, was originally composed for a celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in 1900.

 

1. Lift every voice and sing

Till earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us,

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun

Let us march on till victory is won.

 

2. Stony the road we trod,

Bitter the chastening rod,

Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;

Yet with a steady beat,

Have not our weary feet

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,

We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,

Out from the gloomy past,

Till now we stand at last

Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

 

3. God of our weary years,

God of our silent tears,

Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;

Thou who hast by Thy might

Led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,

Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;

Shadowed beneath Thy hand,

May we forever stand.

True to our God,

True to our native land.

 

“Liberty and Peace”

By Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)

Editor’s Note: Phillis Wheatley was the first published African-American poet in British North America. This piece, her final published poem, celebrates the victorious conclusion of the American Revolution and the recognition of the United States as a member of the family of nations.

 

Lo! Freedom comes. The prescient Muse foretold,

All Eyes the accomplished Prophecy behold:

Her Port described, "She moves divinely fair,

"Olive and Laurel bind her golden Hair."

She, the bright Progeny of Heaven, descends,

And every Grace her sovereign Step attends;

For now kind Heaven, indulgent to our Prayer,

In smiling Peace resolves the Din of War.

Fixed in Columbia her illustrious Line,

And bids in thee her future Councils shine.

To every Realm her Portals opened wide,

Receives from each the full commercial Tide,

Each Art and Science now with rising Charms,

The expanding Heart with Emulation warms.

Even great Britannia sees with dread Surprise,

And from the dazzling Splendors turns her Eyes!

Britain, whose Navies swept the Atlantic o'er,

And Thunder sent to every distant Shore:

Even thou, in Manners cruel as thou art,

The Sword resigned, resume the friendly Part!

For Gallia’s Power espoused Columbia's Cause,

And new-born Rome shall give Britannia Law,

Nor unremembered in the grateful Strain,

Shall princely Louis' friendly Deeds remain;

The generous Prince the impending Vengeance eyes,

Sees the fierce Wrong, and to the rescue flies.

Perish that Thirst of boundless Power, that drew

On Albion's Head the Curse to Tyrants due.

But thou appeased submit to Heaven's decree,

That bids this Realm of Freedom rival thee!

Now sheathe the Sword that bade the Brave atone

With guiltless Blood for Madness not their own.

Sent from the Enjoyment of their native Shore

Ill-fated — never to behold her more!

From every Kingdom on Europa's Coast

Thronged various Troops, their Glory, Strength and Boast.

With heart-felt pity fair Hibernia saw

Columbia menaced by the Tyrant's Law:

On hostile Fields fraternal Arms engage,

And mutual Deaths, all dealt with mutual Rage;

The Muse's Ear hears Mother Earth deplore

Her ample Surface smoke with kindred Gore:

The hostile Field destroys the social Ties,

And ever-lasting Slumber seals their Eyes.

Columbia mourns, the haughty Foes deride,

Her Treasures plundered, and her Towns destroyed:

Witness how Charlestown's curling Smokes arise,

In sable Columns to the clouded Skies!

The ample Dome, high-wrought with curious Toil,

In one sad Hour the savage Troops despoil.

Descending Peace the Power of War confounds;

From every Tongue celestial Peace resounds:

As from the East the illustrious King of Day,

With rising Radiance drives the Shades away,

So Freedom comes arrayed with Charms divine,

And in her Train Commerce and Plenty shine.

Britannia owns her Independent Reign,

Hibernia, Scotia, and the Realms of Spain;

And great Germania's ample Coast admires

The generous Spirit that Columbia fires.

Auspicious Heaven shall fill with favoring Gales,

Where e'er Columbia spreads her swelling Sails:

To every Realm shall Peace her Charms display,

And Heavenly Freedom spread her golden Ray.

 

The frontispiece for Phillis Wheatley's first published book, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (London, 1773). (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)